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Making people sick is bad for business: buzz edition

‘Infamous is when you’re more than famous. As in, this man El Guapo is not just famous, he’s infamous.’

Sorta like when your buzz goes down.

According to CNBC, Chipotle’s buzz is on the negative scale (whatever that means).

YouGov BrandIndex said its “buzz” score plummeted to -39.4 on Tuesday from 7.4 on October 30 before an E. coli outbreak came to light. This is the lowest level YouGov has ever measured for the chain since it began tracking it in mid-2007.

Purchase consideration has also plummeted. About 13 percent of respondents said they would consider Chipotle the next time they ate at a restaurant, its lowest level since February 2014. Since the year began, YouGov interviewed 25,000 adults about Chipotle for its surveys.

“I think it’s going to be a while before consumers shake this off and get it out of their mind,” said YouGov BrandIndex CEO Ted Marzilli, in a phone interview.

“When two happen so close together, it does have a magnification impact,” he added.

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About Ben Chapman

Dr. Ben Chapman is an associate professor and food safety extension specialist at North Carolina State University. As a teenager, a Saturday afternoon viewing of the classic cable movie, Outbreak, sparked his interest in pathogens and public health. With the goal of less foodborne illness, his group designs, implements, and evaluates food safety strategies, messages, and media from farm-to-fork. Through reality-based research, Chapman investigates behaviors and creates interventions aimed at amateur and professional food handlers, managers, and organizational decision-makers; the gate keepers of safe food. Ben co-hosts a biweekly podcast called Food Safety Talk and tries to further engage folks online through Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and, maybe not surprisingly, Pinterest. Follow on Twitter @benjaminchapman.